


Markers

by SLWalker



Series: Taking Flight [8]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: (Pre-slashy), Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Reflection, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 17:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12687162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLWalker/pseuds/SLWalker
Summary: Obi-Wan teaches Maul how to do up his braid; Maul reflects on markers of achievement.





	Markers

“Measure it in finger-lengths, that’s how I do it.”

Maul absently chewed his bottom lip as he worked on braiding the recently-dry hair behind Obi-Wan’s ear. Braiding itself was not terribly difficult, he had already known how, but apparently there were _baubles_ to add to it at different points.

The concept of such markers of achievement confused him. To be– rewarded for something which should have been expectation. Were these little threads and beads something to be proud of? Or was it some indicator to others what a padawan was capable of? Was it both?

The only markers Maul had for his accomplishments were invisible, written on his skeleton or on the surface of his mind. Praise, then punishment. Always those two things were tangled around one another, to make him strong.

_A broken bone heals stronger,_ his Master had said. Maul had long lost count of which ones he had broken or were broken for him.

“Maul?” Obi-Wan asked, worry creeping into his tone; it was then that Maul realized he had stopped braiding, too lost in thought to continue.

“Sorry,” he answered, turning himself back to the task with more focus, fingers twitching once and then steadying again as he plaited the markers of accomplishment and pride into Obi-Wan’s hair, and wondered what his own might have looked like, had he ever been good enough to gain them.


End file.
